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MATERNITY WARD The Learning Channel, check local listings

If it's possible to be discreet and sensitive while filming a woman giving birth, Maternity Ward succeeds -- though it often takes a little camera trickery. Admits producer Michael Selditch, ''Sometimes we have to edit out the yelling and cursing when a woman has an especially grueling labor.'' That and the question of ''just how much we can show of the infant emerging'' are the biggest tactical problems in a series that is sympathetic to moms-about-to-be without sentimentalizing the oft-yucky process. ''The other important factor is finding doctors and nurses who come across on camera,'' says Selditch. ''They have to explain the procedures, and some of the most intelligent doctors just turn to Jell-O when the camera goes on.'' Ever have a patient exhibit postnatal second thoughts about letting the world see her in full mid-labor glory? ''Yep. That's why we make sure they sign ironclad pre-birth agreements.'' Waaaaa!! -- Ken Tucker

JUDITH Regan TONIGHT Fox News Channel, Saturdays and Sundays, 12 a.m.

A cocksure combination of Jerry Springer and Oprah Winfrey in size 4 Christian Dior suits, Judith Regan -- publisher of ReganBooks, former Entertainment Tonight producer, and now talk-show host -- makes no bones about what sets her celebrity chat-fest/political free-for-all apart from others. ''Frankly, it's me,'' she laughs. ''It really depends on what's happening that week, what my hormonal levels are, and whether I got any sleep the night before.'' PMS alerts aside, what distinguishes Regan's program from other gab shows isn't necessarily her interview technique (''Underneath the facade you're a sweet, loving, hardworking kind of guy,'' she once cooed to a blank-faced Marilyn Manson), but her outraged diatribes on current events. Her most recent rant? Celebrity infidelity a la Rudy Giuliani, Bill Clinton, and Frank Gifford (''Why are men so beastly?'') which conveniently included a reference to one of her imprint's latest books (What Is a Man?). ''When I skewer people, it has nothing to do with their gender,'' explains Regan. ''It has to do with my own moral outrage.'' -- Clarissa Cruz

STRONG Medicine Lifetime, premieres July 23, 9 p.m.

Leave it to ''television for women'' to doll up the mismatched-buddies genre. Northern Exposure vet Janine Turner is Dana, a rigid doctor at a posh Philly hospital; Rosa Blasi (Showtime's Noriega: God's Favorite) is streetwise Luisa, who runs a South Side practice. Fate -- in the form of exec producer/ sometime guest star Whoopi Goldberg, who plays a famed physician -- places the two in charge of a women's clinic. ''I'm used to having male costars to banter with,'' says Turner of the show's Thelma & Louise-style pairing. ''But Rosa is very passionate -- I think we'll have fun.'' There are, however, Issues: The duo grapples with child abuse, drug dependency, homelessness -- and that's just the pilot. Turner also plans to give her well-pressed doc some personality wrinkles. ''I want to see her laugh, as well as struggle with the darkness of illness,'' says the 38-year-old Texan. ''I want her to be a complete person. Of course, we all try to be complete people -- that's the challenge.'' You grow, girl!


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